Img source: https://www.pixiv.net/en/artworks/94813056#manga
Artist: ステルス改行
*slaps roof of caption* wanna see how many characters I can fit into this caption?
Good luck trying to figure out who is saying what. I've done my best to write and format it in a way where you can still identify who is who if you pay attention to their dialogue.
No idea if I succeeded at that though.
It was far from the first time you had gone out into the wild to collect and test ingredients. When you did, you often hired a local hunter or forager to make sure you didn't get poisoned or eaten by anything.
Recently, a member of the kingdom's nobility had requested you to organize the food of a banquet. Due to your reputation as an incredible chef, it wasn't rare for rich and influential people to seek you and your recipes out.
But this was undoubtedly the most prestigious job you had ever been hired for, and you absolutely had to create a unique new recipe for it. For that purpose, you decided to go looking for obscure ingredients in the forest near a village in the outskirts of the country called Thyse.
H"Henry. This is no time to not be paying attention." N*Chuckle* N"We get that it's technically what you are "paying" us for. But if you trip over a root or whatever it's on you."
Helma shoots Niels a slightly annoyed look for a moment, but quickly turns her attention back to their surroundings, and any signs of potential danger.
"Sorry, I was lost in thought. I'm not used to working like this. Vinnie, you said this forest had several unique kinds of berries, herbs, and mushrooms which you confirmed were non-toxic?"
V"Yeah, edible!" *Laugh* The botanist's boisterous laughter is quickly silenced by a glare from Helma.
V"Anyway... You want to know which one would be most effective to go looking for first, right? I recommend Thysian mint. That's why I took my colleague Jamie along with us."
Jamie nods. J"Yeah.. I saw a considerable amount of it growing by the side of the creek a while ago." *Sigh* "I should be able to point us towards it when we get to the creek..."
You look over at Helma for a moment, and with a quick nod, she confirms that she can indeed lead them to the creek Jamie was talking about.
She almost immediately changes the direction in which the group is moving, and with a clearer destination, their pace increases somewhat. One member of the group seems reluctant though.
J"I don't think we should go there. The ground was unstable around there." V"Eh.. knowing you you probably just slipped on a leaf and got spooked~."
N"Hmm, we should probably be careful around there. Bodies of water like that often have slime breeding grounds near them in this time of year. Whether those are in any way dangerous or not depends on what stage of development they are in. That being said.
Ground surrounding them is usually sturdy, since collapses and leaks would obviously harm -"
As you all approach the creek, Niels' lengthy explanation on the ecology of local slime species, to which even Helma is listening quite intently, still isn't over. It suddenly comes to an abrupt end though.
By the time anyone had processed what was happening, everyone was already falling into a pit they hadn't seen.
Luckily the drop isn't large, and the bottom of the hole is filled with a gooey substance which is thick enough to break your fall for the most part, though Niels falling onto your legs still hurts.
Helma quickly gets up, but by looking at her you quickly become aware that something is wrong with the slime, as it's rapidly melting away her clothes and even her weapons.
Noticing the same, she quickly turns around and reaches out to you to get her employer out of danger as quickly as possible. Before she can though, she somehow seems to lose her balance, causing her to fall onto Jamie's back.
She tries to get up again, but she doesn't have any strength in her legs, and none of you can do anything as you all collapse and pass out one by one.
- A while later -
You are not sure how much time has passed once you wake up. Though you feel strange, you expected to feel much worse once you woke up. Instead, you mostly just feel strangely soft and wet. You slowly sit up and look around.
You still seem to be in the slime pit, and there are three unfamiliar looking girls in front of you. They also just seem to be waking up, and each look identical to one another. Their skin is a pale purplish colour, and their eyes and long hair are a more vivid purple.
Instead of legs, they all seem to have a thick sluglike tail, and on their foreheads they have thin stalks, topped with simple eyes.
H"Ughh... Is everyone alright?" The slug girl whose upper body is resting on the tail of one of the others looks around. Though authoritative tone is familiar, her voice isn’t, and she looks as confused as the other two.
H"Niels, Henry, Jamie, Vinnie?" V"Yeah, that's me!" You suddenly hear what sounds like the exact same voice with a more carefree and lively tone from behind you.
You try to look around to see who it belongs to, but your movements are oddly slow. Suddenly, a pair of hands bearing the same purplish colour as the slug girls reaches out from behind you, and tightly squeeze your sensitive tits for a brief moment.
"Ahn~!? W-what the?!" The sudden awareness of several things shocks you. Your voice, which sounds just like the slug girls, the fact that you have breasts, but most of all what you see when you look down.
Your body looks just like that of the slug girls around you.
V"I'm guessing that you are... Jamie? No wait, the chef is more likely. Bit surprising, but these bodies feel good, huh?"
J"W-what happened t-to my body..?" N"...Some... species of slimes build dirt roofs over their pits... mainly the non-toxic ones. S-sorry about not prioritising that bit of information..."
The three slug girls in front of you keep talking, but you are too preoccupied with your body to pay much attention to it. You carefully lift your breasts a little. They feel nice, and are very soft along with the rest of your body.
The girl behind you chuckles softly as she presses her chest up against your back and looks over your shoulder.
"Wait a second... If I'm some kind of slug girl, does that mean..! W-what if I can no longer handle salt?!" V*Laugh* V"-That's- what you are concerned about? Just enjoy it now, and wear gloves later cheffy~."
You want to snap at her for not taking anything seriously, but you are interrupted by one of the others clearing her throat.
Since everyone looks and sounds the same, you've lost track of which of the girls it is, but she has managed to stand up completely, resting on her sluglike tail.
H"Everyone. Focus and get up. I know this body must be even weirder to you guys than to me. But we need to get out of here. Especially you need to focus and take this seriously Vinnie." She briefly glares at the slug girl behind you, who giggles softly as she backs away from you.
- Once you finally reach the village -
It took a while, but eventually your entire group managed to get used enough to your bodies to stand up and begin crawling. Moving forwards upon your singular "foot" felt incredibly strange, and was infuriatingly slow.
By the time you finally get back to Thyse, the sun is already setting. Helma and Niels drop the large branches they had picked up in the forest to defend the group.
J"We're f-finally back..." N"Well... we are out of the forest. But we aren't out of the woods yet. Next up will be proving our identities..."
Helma, who you can only identify for certain because she was always at the front of the group nods. H"I once had to help a friend prove her identity. It won't be easy, but I'm sure some of us have people here who they can convince. Aside from that, we can vouch for each other's identities."
You want to say something, but decide not to lower the others' spirits. To keep your recipes hidden, you never told anyone when or where you went to find the ingredients for new recipes.
Considering your renown, for "some random slug girl" to be accepted as being you, she would either need royalty or a respected hero to vouch for her. In all likelihood, you'll be stuck in this village for a while.
You look at the Thysian mint in your hand... it definitely wasn't worth all this. But after all this, you'd better make an incredible recipe with it.
